Rectory Chapel Altar of Repose

Spring 2025

The local Catholic Parish of St. Mary is having a new rectory built for their parish priests and visiting priests and will soon have a small, in-house, chapel dedicated to St. John Paul II. I was commissioned in early January to design and build a small altar of repose for the new rectory chapel. The basis of the design was inspired by the carved stone altar located in the Luminous Mysteries Chapel at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C..

The entire altar is made from solid, local, northeast Ohio black cherry, with the exception of the black walnut pegs used to secure the mortise and tenon joinery. The wood is handplaned and finished with a combination of shellac and natural oils.